History

Anselmi Hakamäki and his sons Ilmari and Jussi and son-in-law Aarne started sawmilling in Isojoki in 1949. A lot has changed in sawing technology after that, but one thing remains unchanged - we have been a reliable family business more than 60 years.

In the early years all operations in Isojoen Saha were limited to the area of one hectare and they were using a single frame saw. The boards and planks were manually hanged out to dry out in the sun and wind to slowly achieve their state of readiness for delivery by the summer. Surely there was also some export going on at the time, but the shipping would had to take place in Kristiinankaupunki harbour during the first open waters in the spring.

The saw kept buzzing from autumn until the spring with the crew of twenty men. The capacity was 150 to 200 logs per day, which was translated into 5,000 cubic meters sawn timber per year, making a use of 10,000 cubic meters of log. The repertoire at the time consisted of a two-by-four and a schaal board, dried outside, with random lengths.

Today, the third generation of Hakamäki family is running the business. The factory area is currently over 20 ha and the number of employees is close 50. We produce 135,000 cubic meters of sawn timber per year and the need for raw material is close to 300,000 cubic meters annually. We have customers in 30 countries on four continents.

Nowadays sawn timber has become a highly-developed product tailored to the customer. Customer orientation means that width and thickness, moisture content, specific cutting method and grading against customers purposes – are all done according to the specific wishes of each customer.